I’m currently in the midst of a whole drivetrain overhaul, spurred by a failed center bearing giving the dreaded clunk clunk clunk on acceleration. So I’m also replacing the giubo. Since I’d be removing the exhaust system, I figured it was high time to tackle replacing the CV boots on the drive axles as well, because a couple of them are badly torn. And then since I have the drive axles and drive shaft off, what the hell, might as well drop the differential, get it cleaned up, and replace its various seals and gaskets, cause it’s not likely I’ll have it this accessible any time in the near future. I already removed the rear half of the exhaust pipe (might as well replace the exhaust gaskets while I’m in there, they’re pretty crumbly). So overall, my goals are:
- Remove drive shaft, replace center bearing and giubo
- Remove drive axles, clean and rebuild with new CV boots
- Drop differential, clean, disassemble, and replace all seals and gaskets
- Replace differential rear rubber mount
- Replace exhaust gaskets and hangers when reassembling everything
I hit a snag, however, when attempting to remove the front exhaust to manifold nuts. It seems that no matter how many applications and soakings of Blaster I employ, they refuse to budge with my impact wrench, and obviously it’s way too confined to get at them with a breaker bar.
As it stands now, I have the heat shield off so I can clearly see the center bearing, with its rubber surround utterly destroyed. I read
here that it is possible to remove the driveshaft without removing the exhaust. That sounds nice. If anyone has any tips and tricks for doing that, I’d really appreciate it. For instance, is there any specific trick in unbolting the giubo with the exhaust in the way? Seems like it doesn’t give much clearance.
I’m probably going to get around to that next weekend. I got the drive axles off yesterday so today I’m gonna tackle the CV boots.